Kiwi making her mark at COS: Anna Cameron leads team in scoring

Thursday

Feb 14, 2013 at 12:45 PMFeb 14, 2013 at 12:49 PM

Bill Choy

Anna Cameron has traveled quite a ways to find hoops success on the College of the Siskiyous women's basketball team.The sophomore from Cambridge, New Zealand currently leads the team in scoring with 18.6 points per game. Her season high was 33 against Shasta at home and she has scored more than 30 points on two other occasions. She also is averaging nine rebounds per contestA post player, Cameron is a key contributor to the Lady Eagles 17-4 overall record and 5-1 league mark.Head coach Tom Powers believes that she has a good chance to earn All-State honors and Golden Valley Conference MVP accolades this season.For more than five years the COS women's program has had players coming in from New Zealand, Powers said.This began when a former COS assistant coach played basketball for the summer in New Zealand and established contacts with coaches there."It's been word of mouth since then," Powers said. "It has been highly successful for us." Powers received word about her from Cameron's coach in New Zealand and recommended her and anther player to COS. While cost proved to be the factor in the other player being unable to attend COS, Anna made her way to campus and was the only freshman starter on last season's conference championship team.At, first, Powers said, he did not know what to expect from Cameron and said that she has certainly exceeded expectations. While it took her time to adjust to playing on this level in a new country, Powers said he has been quite impressed with how quickly she has improved her game and become such a key contributor to the Lady Eagles."It just seemed like a good opportunity and it would be a new experience for me," Cameron said about deciding to come to COS.Anna said that she did not play basketball competitively until she was around 13-years old and discovered she enjoyed the sportCameron said that she likes the small town environment at COS. After all, she said, she grew up on a dairy farm in rural New Zealand."It's a tight knit community here," Cameron said. "You get to know everybody and Tom has been a good coach," she said.Cameron is excelling in the classroom and is a 4.0 student at COS. Her main academic focus at this time is in chemistry and hopes to one day become a chemist that uses chemistry to work on different products to help make them better.Already, Powers said Cameron has received interest from a number of four-year schools such as Florida Tech, Humboldt State and the University of Alaska Anchorage."She's done well for us and has gotten better this year." Powers said. "I think her coming here has been great for her and for us. She's just a great kid"Anna said she is excited about continuing her basketball career and education in America and said she is certainly looking at all her choices at this time. In New Zealand, there is really no collegiate opportunities to play basketball, so Cameron knew she needed to travel overseas to continue her hoops career"In New Zealand it's different," she said. "You might have 10 people at a game."Here, she said, sports are much more of a priority and said it was surprising at first to have so many more fans than she was used to come out to games, or being recognized on campus or around town.Powers said what makes Cameron a good player is how versatile she is on the court and how much she has improved taking the ball to the basket this season. It has also helped that Cameron has worked on and improved her 3-point shooting to make her even more of a threat.And, Powers said, while she was rather shy when she first arrived, Cameron has matured and she has become a good team leader for the younger players and leads by example with her dedication to the sport. "Her confidence has improved and she just has been great for us," Powers said. "She is going to be missed." He added she has become one of the better post players he has had on his women's basketball teams. "She's going to be hard to replace," he said.Cameron said that while it is a different dynamic this year with more freshman on the team, she said the team has been working well together.While she may not be the most vocal leader, Anna said that "I like to lead on the court more."Today, COS is at Shasta. Saturday is the regular season home finale for COS as they take on Feather River. The game begins at 5:30 p.m. COS ends the regular season at Redwoods in Eureka next Thursday, before making a playoff appearance.